What happened in Kano around the emirate circle on Sunday, June 8 reminded us of a wise African proverb which says that you cannot beat a child and drive him away from your house, but still pursue him to his father’s house with continuous beating.
As a matter of fact, the mud of politics thrown carelessly into the selection of a new Emir for Kano after the demise, on Friday, of Alhaji Dr. Ado Bayero, was so glaring that no sensible person could miss its import. It was so cleverly done that even those of us in the business of online publishing system fell flat for it.
It was like the powers that be, which had earlier beaten Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and drove him out of the system was too busy with just anything to prevent him from getting the opportunity of being consdered as the new Emir: a case of suspending him as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)and asking him to go away from the federal service and still following him to his traditional enclave; his father’s house in Kano, with the purpose of denying him the opportunity of getting what rightly belonged to him.
But Kano people knew better or did they?
The circumstances surrounding the first announcement of the name of Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero as the new Emir showed clearly some machievellian moves by those who wanted to stand between Sanusi Lamido and the Emirship to do so conveniently.
It beat one’s imagination how the news was floated and made real that the first announcement of the appointment of Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero was made by Sanusi Lamido via his twitta. As a matter of fact, most of the online media, including Greenbarge Reporters, in haste not to be beaten to it, quoted the purpoted message of Sanusi Lamido’s twitta. Even most of the conventional news media went to town with the wrong news, some of them had started analysing the history of the Sanusi Ado Bayero.
Of course, shortly after publishing the first false version of the controversial appointment, it dawned on the editors of Greenbarge Reporters, even before the announcement of the name of Sanusi Lamido, that some funny elements were playing smart politics with this matter.
Number one: Sanusi Lamido, as one of the contenders to the throne couldn’t have gone public to be the first to announce the name of the opponent of Sanusi Ado Bayero.
Number two: the tradition is clear that it is only the governor of the state or his representative that had the authority and privilege to make such a sensitive announcement.
Number three: there was no way Sanusi Lamido would have trivialized such matter by resorting to social media for the announcement of a new Emir.
Having considered these facts, Editors of the Greenbarge Reporters ordered for quick delete of the news item from the site.
A few hours later, the fear the Editor nursed came to pass when governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, through the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), announced the name of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the new Emir.
The first question that came to mind was: why would politicians infiltrate into this revered stool simply to score a point or hit back at the face they don’t like?
Another quick question was: why would some Kano youths take to the streets, protesting whoever become Emir when they know that all the contestants are brothers?
The only thing that would eventually shame the promoters of this senselessness over an issue that has long been settled would be that the Emirship of Kano and the contest for it is not the same as political position where the looser would be rigged into office, with such looser daring the real winner to go to court even when it is clear that the court issue is a formality to affirm the looser’s “victory.”

[myad]

Nigeria unfortunately lost two great Nigerian nationalists: the Emir of Kano for over 40 years, Alhaji Dr. Ado Bayero and former minister of information and communications, Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili within 24 hours this week. While Alhaji Ado Bayero died in the early hours of Friday, Professor Dora Akunyili gave up the ghost in the early hours of Saturday.
Of course, it is an incontrovertible reality that there would always be death when it comes, but nevertheless, leave us, the mortals, to be imagning the cause of such death. The cases of these two great personalities were not different from this partern.
Beyond the search for reasons for their deaths is also the reality that they were, in the calculation of human being, opposite in many respects: Ado Bayero was a male while Dora Akunyili was a female. Ado Bayero was a Muslim as Dora Akunyili was a Christian. Ado Bayero was a Royal father (a Monarch) while Akunyili was a politician. Ado Bayero was from the far North as Dora Akunyli was from the far East.
But, in reality and physical dispositions, the two personalities have a lot of positive traits in common. They were, in their different callings, selfless, committed to excellence in service, conscious of their input to the societal growth and happiness of others over selves. They lived so that others would find joy in living, so to say.
Alhaji Ado Bayero, popularly called by his admirers as “Sarkin Zamani” (translated roughly as modern monarch) was in love with humanity, not just his immediate family or emirate but across the country and the world.
There has always been the fear that Kano might not be the same again, in terms of cohesion, peace and above all, comfort for the non indigines, from the very moment he died. With his death on Friday, that fear needs to be carefully put into focus.
In deed, it is no child’s play for Alhaji Ado Bayero to rule Kano, the largest emirate in the country, for over 40 years, interspersed by Nigerian civil war, series of Maitatsine crises, “June 12” political imbroglio and now, Boko Haram.
His uprightness in the defence of truth, even if such truth would adversely affect his relations, and his commitment to national unity nearly cost him his life last year when he was attacked by members of Boko Haram, who ovbiously were at war with his type. They have said it again and again that they would attack and kill anybody who have sympathy for democracy and anything western system. And Alhaji Ado Bayero, being the Sarkin Zamani, became their chief enemy because of his belief in equality of man before God, his upbringing as an administrator and manager of man and material and above all, as a believer in the indivisibility of this country called Nigeria.
The Emir never wavered from the ideals of national cohesion even when he returned to the country after undergoing medical treatment overseas.
Just like Alhaji Ado Bayero, Professor Akunyili displayed a great pashion for the advancement of Nigeria and gave her all for the country to be safe from the dangers inherent in adultrated and fake drugs across the country; an action that exposed her to the danger posed by drug barons.
One of her numerous admirers had this to say of her: “May the legacy left by Professor Akunyili rekindle our hope for better Nigeria. I am personally inspired by all her great achievements throughout her period of office in the government and afterwards, driven by her strong purpose in life. She established a fact that as a woman, her voice should be heard and that she could fight and win a war of injustice, inequity, misappropriation, unfairness etc. Her strong commitment towards her purpose was just extraordinary.”
So it is that the world of similarity between the two giants that quit this world on Friday, June 6 and Saturday June 7 is the indefatigablity of action for the purpose of making life comfortable for their fellow human beings, and even animals and other living things. They were here with the purpose, in their own unique ways, remaking the world where everyone and everything run in harmony according to the will of God.

[myad]